Ducati won the previous two Qatar GPs in 2018 and 2019 with Andrea Dovizioso, while the Italian managed runner-up spot on his works team Desmosedici from 2015-2017. Having topped the Qatar test outright, Miller was expected to continue Ducati’s run last weekend, but tyre issues dropped him to ninth while Pramac’s Johann Zarco ended up […]
Year: 2021
Verstappen won’t make Turn 4 mistake again
Hamilton beat Verstappen to victory in F1’s 2021 opener despite the Red Bull driver’s pace advantage, by hanging on after Mercedes’ aggressive strategy calls got the world champion ahead and Verstappen went too wide at the Bahrain track’s controversial Turn 4 right-hander as the pair went wheel-to-wheel in the closing stages. … Continue Reading on […]
KTM has “taken a hard blow” by Qatar MotoGP tyre allocation
The entire MotoGP field were forced into running the soft front tyre during last weekend’s season-opener at Losail due to the dropping temperatures of the evening race. This is a compound KTM has typically struggled on in the past, with its preferred hard option not viable for the conditions. Binder’s team-mate Miguel Oliveira took a […]
Alfa Romeo has reclaimed its spot in the F1 midfield
The team endured a poor 2020 season, scoring just eight points on its way to eighth place in the constructors’ championship, with its best result coming in the Emilia Romagna GP, where Kimi Raikkonen was ninth. But, in pre-season testing, Alfa emerged as one of the surprises with its C41 car, which hinted at being […]
Rossi questions “respect” of some MotoGP riders
The Petronas SRT rider was nudged slightly wide by Binder in the latter stages of last Sunday’s 2021 season-opener at Turn 1 – though Rossi ended up two spots ahead of the KTM in 12th at the chequered flag. The incident required no intervention from Race Direction, while Binder doesn’t believe there was any contact. […]
Ricciardo promised ride in Earnhardt Chevrolet in new F1 podium bet
Ricciardo jumped ship from Renault to McLaren during the off-season, hoping to do better than the two podiums he achieved in two years with the Enstone team. After not being able to finish in the top three in his first season with Renault, Ricciardo got team boss Cyril Abiteboul to agree on getting a tattoo […]
Marquez “worried” about Honda’s MotoGP qualifying form
The LCR rider struggled for form on the RC213V in his rookie season in 2020, only cracking the top 12 on the grid twice across the campaign. The Honda is typically a difficult bike to extract the maximum from during a time attack, but Marquez feels he has made a step forward in this area […]
Low-rake F1 teams warned of rules impact last year
Szafnauer has blamed the rule tweaks for the team’s loss of competitiveness since the end of last season, when as Racing Point it was a regular podium challenger and took victory in the Sakhir GP. Racing Point followed the Mercedes low-rake concept for its 2020 car and was committed to it for 2021 due to […]
No clear cause of Qatar MotoGP woes found
The Italian was tagged as one of the favourites to fight for victory in last Sunday’s season-opener, but plummeted from seventh on the grid to 18th come the chequered flag. Sources close to the team confirmed to Autosport that Morbidelli’s issue stemmed from a faulty holeshot device. Morbidelli confirmed on Thursday ahead of the second […]
Honda to assess more aggressive F1 engine usage in Mercedes fight
While Red Bull-Honda had a clear pace advantage over Mercedes in qualifying at Sakhir last weekend, in the race there was little to separate the two teams. That shift in form opened the door for Mercedes to use an aggressive strategy to help Lewis Hamilton get track position over Max Verstappen, with the Briton holding […]